‘Due process denied’: US judge slams wrongful deportation of gay Guatemalan asylum seeker to Mexico

Nevin Al Sukari - Sana'a - A gay Guatemalan said he was wrongly deported to Mexico. — AFP pic

BOSTON, May 24 — A federal judge ordered the Trump administration on Friday to facilitate the return of a gay Guatemalan man who said he was deported to Mexico despite fearing he would be persecuted there, after officials acknowledged an error in his case.

U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy in Boston issued the order days after the Justice Department notified him that its claim that the man had expressly stated he was not afraid of being sent to Mexico was based on erroneous information.

The Justice Department said last week that upon further investigation, officials were unable to identify any Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer who had asked the man, identified as “O.C.G.,” about fears he had for his safety.

Murphy, an appointee of Trump’s Democratic predecessor Joe Biden, called the case a “horror” and said that “while mistakes obviously happen, the events leading up to this decision are troubling.”

The ruling marks the latest instance of a judge ordering President Donald Trump’s administration to facilitate the return of a migrant swept up in the Republican’s efforts to carry out mass deportations as part of his hard-line immigration agenda, following a mistake in an individual’s case.

In a class action lawsuit filed by O.C.G. and other migrants, the judge had blocked the administration from swiftly deporting people to countries other than their own without first hearing any concerns they had about their safety.

“Due process is, in some sense, a binary — one either receives what the Constitution requires, or one does not,” Murphy wrote. “It has been clear that O.C.G. did not receive what the Constitution requires.”

The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The government likewise made an error with Maryland resident Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was deported to El Salvador in March despite an order protecting him from removal. He remains there, despite a judge ordering the administration to facilitate his return.

Friday’s ruling comes two days after Murphy, in the class action lawsuit case, concluded that the Trump administration had violated his earlier ruling by attempting to deport a group of migrants to South Sudan.

According to his lawyers, O.C.G. is a gay man who fled Guatemala in 2024 after facing death threats based on his sexuality. He entered the United States through Mexico in May 2024.

Murphy said that while an immigration judge in February found O.C.G. deserved protection from being returned to Guatemala, authorities two days later wrongly placed him on a bus to Mexico, where he had recently been raped and kidnapped.

Trina Realmuto, a lawyer for O.C.G. at the National Immigration Litigation Alliance, said his legal team was “elated” by Murphy’s ruling and would work to facilitate a return plan.

After arriving in Mexico, O.C.G. had to choose between waiting months in detention to apply for asylum in Mexico or return to Guatemala. He chose the latter and went into hiding, his lawyers say. — Reuters